Minimum Orange County casino investment draws ire

Tuesday

May 13, 2014 at 2:00 AMMay 13, 2014 at 9:38 AM

In a blow to Sullivan and Ulster County casino contenders who wanted the state to set a minimum casino investment high enough to deter Orange hopefuls, the figure is below what the projects plan to spend in the first place.

BY STEVE ISRAEL

In a blow to Sullivan and Ulster County casino contenders who wanted the state to set a minimum casino investment high enough to deter Orange hopefuls, the figure is below what the projects plan to spend in the first place.

For a casino with at least one hotel in Orange County, the minimum capital investment is $350 million. The price tag for each of the planned casinos in the Town of Woodbury and the Town of Blooming Grove is already $750 million.

But in an apparent acknowledgement that a casino in Orange would be more lucrative than one anywhere else in the Hudson Valley/Catskills region, the New York Gaming Facility Location Board on Monday said the minimum investment for a Sullivan and/or Ulster casino would be more than $200 million lower than one in Orange.

If no license is awarded in Orange, the minimum investment for a casino in Sullivan or Ulster would be $130 million.

If a license is awarded in Orange, the minimum investment in Sullivan or Ulster is $100 million.

All of the Sullivan and Ulster projects already have price tags considerably above those minimums, ranging from $750 million for the Empire Resorts/EPR Properties project at the old Concord to about $400 million each for the proposed casinos at the old Nevele near Ellenville and the Foxwoods Catskill resort at the old Grossinger's in Liberty.

Sullivan and Ulster contenders had hoped the minimum capital investment for an Orange casino would be at least $1 billion.

They're all vying for the up to two casinos allowed in the Hudson Valley/Catskills region.

By setting the minimum so low, the state apparently did not want to "scare" off anyone.

It said it arrived at its figures by reviewing casino projects in states such as Massachusetts and Maryland.

It also considered projected revenues from the various contenders and "the desire to balance the goal of encouraging competition "» to preserve the integrity of the selection process with the goal of maximizing the economic benefits to the state and each region."

Including the state licensing fee and financing costs, the state says the cumulative investment for an Orange casino would be $472.5 million — still far below that $1 billion Sullivan and Ulster contenders wanted.

In Sullivan and Ulster, the cumulative investment would be $175 million without an Orange casino and $138.5 million with one.